Editor's Note: This call was on April 16, but it's still definitely worth reading what the great Charles Barkley and Jeff Van Gundy had to say.

Q: Last year in the playoffs, there were four games of 40 or more points by individuals. This year you had four on the first weekend. What do you think was the particular reason for that and can this trend continue, or do you expect the defenses to buckle down?

Charles Barkley: It just means a lot of guys played defense like I did. I don’t think it’s going to be that many 40-point games when you look at the finished product. I think all the games were fun to watch. All those guys put on tremendous displays. There’s not going to be like 25 40-point games at the end of the playoffs. Sometimes you just get it going. One thing I like about those guys is they made adjustments. You know I get on the Celtics because they want to shoot all those threes. I was happy that Paul Pierce and those guys were off. Because you know what, you don’t have to shoot threes. They took the ball to the basket and that’s when he got in the zone, going to the basket and getting free throws. I was impressed with Dirk Nowitzki, because that boy is doing what a superstar is supposed to do, take his team to another level, be aggressive. Same thing with T Mac. Same thing with A.I. Playoffs are the time for stars.

Jeff Van Gundy: I think it was a tremendous show and I think all four teams that got hurt by the big scoring night by the best players are going to have to consider some timely double teams. I don’t think you want to allow, especially in the fourth quarter, the best player to get the majority of the shots, particularly when they’re on a roll. It’s harder against a lot of these guys because they’re perimeter players, and the further you double team away from the basket, the more you expose the basket area to advantages to the offense. I think that all the coaches will go back and re-plan their fourth quarter defense to make sure that other people have to shoot the ball late.

Q: Jeff, do you enjoy broadcasting and what’s your mindset going into the summer as far as coaching?

Van Gundy: I’ve enjoyed broadcasting more than I thought I would. Everybody at Turner from Mark Lazarus to Mike Pearl to the guys I work with on a daily basis, producers, director, Marv, and Mike, they’ve gone out of the way to make the experience be as good as it possibly can be. When I looked back at the old tapes, I can’t believe just how bad I was, so hopefully I’ve improved a little bit. And I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to see basketball and stay involved with basketball from a different vantage point. While I know more now than ever that I probably will coach again, because of this great experience with Turner, I’m not desperate to coach, so it would have to be the right situation.

Q: With the exception of the Lakers and San Antonio, you don’t have the kind of low-post game that you perhaps had 10-15 years ago. Are there one or two factors, or maybe more than that, that’s led itself to that and do you think we’ll ever see the low-post game come back the way it was?

Barkley: It depends on the player. If you get a Shaquille O’Neal or a Tim Duncan, you’ve gotta go the low post. It just depends on the guys you have. Those guys, they’re on the box. Hakeem was on the box. I played on the box. Karl Malone played on the box. It’s just a matter of the players.

The game’s always gonna have very talented players. When I watch Allen Iverson play, he reminds me of like a Tiny Archibald type guy. The players are always going to come and go as far as low post, high post, or what type of player you are as long as it dictates your talent level.

Van Gundy: I think the post-up game is probably the hardest part of the offense to run now because of the change in the rules. Before you could have defenders lifted up, now it’s very difficult to get the ball in a good spot unless you have a mammoth presence down on the block like O’Neal. So I think that post-up game is harder to run with the short clock and the new defensive guidelines. Yet, I think too many teams take the path of least resistance, as Charles mentioned before about drifting to the three-point line. Still the good teams play inside out, whether they post the basketball up or they drive it in the lane, but the ball gets into the paint because everything good happens from an offensive standpoint when the ball gets into that painted area.

Q: How do you think the Gary Payton trade has worked for the Bucks up to this point and do you have any notions about whether or not he’ll stick around?

Barkley: Well, I don’t think anybody knows that. The trade got the Bucks into the playoffs, number one, so from that standpoint the trade worked. Now it just depends on whether Gary is going to stay in Milwaukee. I like Gary Payton. I think he’s been probably the most underrated player the last 10 or so years. He’s been terrific. I think it’s just a matter if they sign him or not.

Van Gundy: My players never talked to me, so other players certainly wouldn’t talk to me. I have no knowledge about Gary Payton and what he’s going to do, but as Charles said, I love him as a competitor and as a player. I expect him to bounce back and play great in Game 2 against the Nets. I think it’s hard to judge the trade too soon. It’s like the Glenn Robinson trade that everybody thought was a homerun for Atlanta. Then people believed that trade was more beneficial to Milwaukee. I think you have to let trades run their course, all aspects be analyzed. On the surface, I think it was a trade that was good for both teams. I think Ray Allen played very well for Seattle. I think Gary Payton played well for Milwaukee. Both players helped their teams win more than they were winning with their respective teams to start the season.

Q: Have either one of you guys developed any sort of a relationship with NBA superfan Jimmy Goldstein, if you remember meeting him, what you thought, and if you have any funny stories about him?

Barkley: I’ve known Jimmy a long time and he’s just a nice man. I haven’t really spent a lot of quality time with him, but I’ve been around him several occasions. He’s just a nice guy and I think that’s one thing that, one thing about playing, and Jeff can speak for coaching, if there’s a fan who’s there all the time, you kind of develop some type of a bond with him. Basketball means a great deal to me, and when I went to same arenas, and I know the same guys been there five, six, 17 years, they were always cordial and they just enjoyed the game, and that was always special.

Van Gundy: I met him recently. I always knew who he was because I always would ask who he was because of how he would be dressed and that he was always there. He was a Lakers fan and what I found out since is that he’s really just a fan of the NBA. He was in Sacramento for those first two games. He just loves basketball and he loves talking basketball. And as Charles said, as a coach and a player, you have to appreciate anyone who really loves the game as much as he does. So I have a lot of respect for him. Don’t know him personally that well but have always been impressed with his friendliness.

Q: What’s your impression of Game 1 of the Indiana/Boston series? Do you know of any morale problems and if you thought that Isiah Thomas, by using all those players at the start of the fourth quarter of Game 1, had a role in enabling the Celtics to come back?

Barkley: I’m of the theory that if you win it’s the players and if you lose it’s always the coach’s fault. I don’t worry too much about rumor and innuendo. I think the Celtics are very frustrating to watch. For some reason you have two terrific players who shoot so many threes. You know, people say live or die with the three. Let me tell you this, you’re always going to die with the three. Because at the end of the year, you’re going to shoot 35 percent from three-point land, and you’ll probably hit a couple threes down the stretch.

They changed the momentum of their game by going to the basket. He scored all those baskets to get them back in the game. Then the only reason they made those threes down the stretch is because Indiana had to adjust their defense like, “Oh we better back up because he will go to the basket.” It’s frustrating to watch them because those threes. You’re going to live and die with them and most of the time you’re going to die with them. Because no matter how good of a three point shooting team you are, at the end of the day you’re going to shoot 35, 37 percent. That’s really not good enough to get it done.

Van Gundy: I think Jim O’Brien, when people talk about Coach of the Year, I don’t think he gets nearly enough consideration. I think he’s totally maxed out the potential they have on that team. They have two very good players who he has gotten to buy into the defensive end of the floor. Then they have a bunch of role players that have performed, I think, better than expected. So I think the last two years have been just a remarkable coaching job. As far as Game 1, I think, what I find interesting in the NBA is that everybody says it’s a player’s game until a game is lost and then, as Charles said, it’s a coach’s game. My point on that is, every coach, after a loss, goes back and analyzes what they could have done differently. But, I think the biggest adjustments that are made in games aren’t coaching adjustments, it’s the mentality of players that get more urgent and more desperate. Isiah Thomas has had to go through so many things the second half of the year with players in and out of the lineup for so many variety of reasons that he also has done an outstanding job. I just wish we wouldn’t rush to judgment on judging these coaches on a possession-by-possession basis.

Q: What do you expect in Boston when the series returns?

Barkley: In the Eastern Conference, I wish people would quit using the word upset, and things like that. There are no upsets in the Eastern Conference. There’s not a great team and that’s not a knock, there’s just not a great team in the Eastern Conference. Whoever goes out and plays the best on a particular night, they can win. When you play the Lakers, you fear them. When you play Sacramento, you fear them. Dallas has unbelievable talent, but the way they play defense, you don’t fear them. There’re no upsets in the East. I think every game is going to be a dogfight.

Van Gundy: I agree with Charles. I think the parity, the bottom team in the East, Orlando, is much closer to the top team in the East in Detroit than obviously it is in the West, even though, obviously, Phoenix has played San Antonio very well. I always think there are certain teams that are constructed to win for the regular season, and I think Detroit is a perfect example. They have a great regular season team because they have good quality depth. They can withstand injury, they can play on back-to-back nights, but they don’t have that star-quality player to get stuff done in the fourth where they can just throw him the ball like they can with McGrady. So, in Indiana and Boston’s situation, Boston can go to Pierce, they can go to Walker, and then on the other end, Indiana can go to Miller and Jermaine O’Neal. I would be very surprised if Indiana doesn’t get one of the two games in Boston.

Q: Do you change your tone in the playoffs, as far as how you analyze teams and players?

Barkley: Yeah, because the teams are better. I’m just like a fan. I don’t want to see lousy teams play. If you’ve ever been in an NBA playoff environment, you know it’s intense. Even the eighth place team is a good solid team. You try to make the regular season fun, because it’s a grind, and the fans know it’s a grind. They’re not stupid, but the playoffs, they’re a really huge deal. You get a lot of good players. The games are more intense. So, yes, you have to take it more serious.

Part 2 of this conference call is here.


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